(3) It shall come into
force in a State or in a specified area within a State only if the State Government
by notification in the Official Gazette so directs.

2. Definitions.—In
this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,—

(a) "establishment"
means a shop, restaurant or theatre;

(b) "day" means a period of twenty-four hours beginning
at midnight;

(c) "restaurant" means
any premises in which is carried on principally or wholly the business of
supplying meals or refreshments to the public or a class of the public for
consumption on the
premises but does not include a restaurant attached to a theatre;

(d) "shop" includes any premises where any retail trade
or business is carried on, including the business of a barber or hair dresser,
and retail sales by auction, but excluding the sale of programmes, catalogues
and other similar sales at theatres;

(e) "theatre" includes
any premises intended principally or wholly for the presentation of moving pictures,
dramatic performances or stage entertainments;

(f) "week"
means a period of seven days beginning at midnight on Saturday.

3. Closing
of shops.—(1) Every shop shall remain entirely closed
on one day of the week, which day shall be specified by the shop-keeper in a
notice permanently exhibited in a conspicuous place in the shop.

(2) The day so specified shall
not be altered by the shop-keeper more often than once in three months.

Provided that nothing in this
section shall apply to any person whose total period of employment in the week
including any days spent on authorised leave is less than six days or entitle
to an additional holiday a person employed in a shop who has been allowed a
whole holiday on the day on which the shop has remained closed in pursuance
of Section 3.

5. Additional
half-day closing or holiday.—(1)
The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, require in
respect of shops or any specified class of shops that they shall be closed at
such hour in the afternoon of one week-day in every week in addition to the day
provided for by Section 3 as may be fixed by the State Government, and, in
respect of theatres and restaurants or any specified class of either or both,
that every person employed therein otherwise than in a confidential capacity or
in a position of management shall be allowed in each week an additional holiday
of one half-day commencing at such hour in the afternoon as may be fixed by the
State Government.

(2) The State Government
may, for the purposes of this section, fix different hours for different shops
or different classes of shops or for different areas or for different times
of the year.

(3) The weekly day on
which a shop is closed in pursuance of a requirement under sub-section (1) shall
be specified by the shop-keeper in a notice permanently exhibited in a conspicuous
place in the shop and shall not be altered by the shopkeeper more often than
once in three months.

6. No deduction
or abatement to be made from wages.—No deduction
or abatement of the wages of any person employed in an establishment to which
this Act applies shall be made on account of any day or part of a day on which
the establishment has remained closed or a holiday has been allowed in accordance
with Sections 3, 4 and 5, and if such person is employed on the basis that he
would not ordinarily receive wages for such day or part of a day he shall nonetheless
be paid for such day or part of a day the wages he would have drawn had the
establishment not remained closed or the holiday not been allowed on that day
or part of a day.

7. Inspectors.—(1)
The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint persons
to be inspectors for the purposes of this Act within such local limits as it
may assign to each such person.

(2) Every inspector appointed
under this section shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning
of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).

8. Powers
of Inspectors.—(1) Subject to any rules made in this
behalf by the State Government, an inspector may, within the local limits for
which he is appointed,—

(a) enter and remain in any establishment to which this Act applies
with such assistants, if any, being servants of the Government, as he thinks
fit;

(b) make such examination of any such establishment and of any record,
register or notice maintained therein in pursuance of rules made under clause
(c) of sub-section (2) of Section 10, and take on the spot or otherwise
such evidence of any person as he may deem necessary for carrying out the purposes
of this Act;

(c) exercise such other
powers as may be necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act.

(2) Any person having the
custody of any record, register or notice maintained in pursuance of rules made
under clause (c) of sub-section \2) of Section 10 shall be bound to
produce it when so required by the inspector, but no person shall be compellable
to answer any question if the answer
may tend directly or indirectly to incriminate himself.

9. Penalties.—In
the event of any contravention of the provisions of Section 3, or Section 4,
of a requirement imposed by notification under sub-section (1) of Section 5,
or Section 6, or of the rules made under clause (c) of sub-section (2) or Section
10, the proprietor or other person responsible for the management of the establishment
in which such contravention takes place shall be punishable with fine which
may extend, in the case of the first offence, to twenty-five rupees, and, in
the case of a second or subsequent offence, to two hundred and fifty rupees.

10. Rules.—(1)
The State Government may, subject to the condition of previous publication by
notification in the Official Gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes
of this Act.

(2) In particular and without
prejudice to the generality of foregoing power, such rules may—

(a) define
the persons who shall be deemed to be employed in a confidential capacity or
in a position of management for the purposes of Sections 4 and 5;

(b) regulate the exercise of their powers and the discharge of their
duties by inspectors;

(c) require registers
and records to be maintained and notices to be displayed in establishments to
which this Act applies and prescribe the form and contents thereof.

2[(3)
Every rule made by the State Government under this Act shall be laid, as soon
as may be after it is made, before the State Legislature.]

11. Power
of exemption and suspension.—The
Central Government in respect of establishments under its control, and the State
Government in respect of all other establishments within the State may, subject
to such conditions, if any, as it thinks fit to impose, exempt any establishment
to which this Act applies from all or any specified provisions of this Act, and
may, on any special occasion in connection with a fair or festival or a
succession of public holidays, suspend
for a specified period the operation of this Act.

An Act to provide for the
exemption of employers in relation to establishments

employing a small number
of persons from furnishing returns and

maintaining registers under
certain labour laws

Be it enacted by Parliament
in the Thirty-ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:

Prefatory Note—Statement
of Objects and Reasons.—(1) Rules and regulations
framed under various labour laws provide for maintenance of registers in prescribed
formats and periodical submission of returns in prescribed forms. There has
been persistent demands from small business and industrial establishments for
the simplification and reduction in the number of forms and registers required
to be maintained/submitted by small establishments. A Working Group appointed
for the purpose had suggested undertaking of legislation as well as other appropriate
measures for simplification and reduction in the number of forms and registers
required to be maintained by small establishments. In the light of the recommendations
of the Working Group, the matter was considered further at various fora and
Government has considered it desirable that establishments employing smaller
number of persons should be exempted to a limited extent, from maintaining registers
in the prescribed form and from submitting the various returns under certain
existing labour laws.

(2) A small establishment
has been defined in the Bill as an establishment in which not less than ten
and not more than nineteen persons are employed or were employed on any day
of the preceding twelve months. A very small establishment has been defined
as an establishment in which not more than nine persons are employed or were
employed on any day of the preceding twelve months.

(3) Small establishments
will be required to maintain only three muster registers and will be required
to submit only one core return in lieu of the existing returns prescribed under
the various labour laws. Similarly, very small establishments would be allowed
to combine the three muster registers into a single register. Further, they
would be required to submit only one annual core return in lieu of the existing
returns prescribed under the various labour laws. The forms of the registers
and returns have been prescribed in the Bill itself.

(4) However, in view
of the special requirements of social security legislation such as, recovery of
contribution from employers and employees, their accountability, reimbursement,
etc., no exemption has been given in relation to social security legislation.
The enactments from which exemption is
sought to be given have been mentioned in the Schedule to the Bill.

(5) The Bill seeks to
achieve the above objects.

1. Short title
and commencement—(1) This Act may be called the Labour
Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain
Establishments) Act, 1988.

(2) It extends to the
whole of India :

Provided that nothing contained
in this Act, in relation to the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 (69 of 1951) shall
extend to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

(3) It shall come into
force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official
Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different States,
and any reference in any provision of this Act to the commencement of this Act
shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision
in that State.

(a) "employer", in relation to a Scheduled Act, which defines
such expression, has the same meaning assigned to it in that Act, and in relation
to any other Scheduled Act, means the person who is required to furnish returns
or maintain registers under that Act ;

(b) "establishment" has the meaning assigned to it in a
Scheduled Act, and includes,—

(i) an "industrial
or other establishment" as defined in Section 2 of the Payment of Wages
Act, 1936 (4 of 1936) ;

(ii) a "factory"
as defined in Section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948) ;

(iii) a factory,
workshop or place where employees are employed or work is given out to workers,
in any scheduled employment to which the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11
of 1948), applies;

(iv) a "plantation"
as defined in Section 2 of the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 (69 of 1951) ; and

(v) a "newspaper establishment"
as defined in Section 2 of the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees
(Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45 of 1955)
;

(c) "Form" means a Form annexed to this Act ;

(d) "Scheduled Act" means as Act specified in the Schedule
and is in force on the commencement of this Act in the territories to which
such Act extends generally, and includes the rules made thereunder ;

(e) "small establishment" means an establishment in which
not less than ten and not more than nineteen persons are employed or were employed
on any day of the preceding twelve months ;

(f) "very small establishment" means an establishment in
which not more than nine persons are employed or were employed on any day of
the preceding twelve months.

4. Exemption
from returns and registers required under certain labour laws.—(1)
On and from the commencement of this Act it shall not be necessary for an employer
in relation to any small establishment or very small establishment to which
a Scheduled Act applies to furnish the returns or to maintain the registers
required to be furnished or maintained under that Scheduled Act :

Provided that such employer,—

(a) furnishes,
in lieu of such returns, a Core Return in Form A ;

(b) maintains, in lieu of such registers,—

(i) registers in Form
B, Form C and Form D, in the case of small establishments ; and

(ii) registers in
Form D and Form E, in the case of very small establishments :

Provided further that every
such employer shall continue to—

(a) issue wage slips in the Form prescribed in the Minimum Wages
(Central) Rules, 1950 made under Sections 18 and 30 of the Minimum Wages Act,
1948 (11 of 1948) and slips relating to measurement of the amount of work done
by piece-rated workers required to be issued under the Payment of Wages (Mines)
Rules, 1956 made under Sections 13-A and 26 of the Payment of
Wages Act, 1936 (4 of 1936) ; and

(b) file
returns relating to accidents under Sections 88 and 88-A of the Factories Act,
1948 (63 of 1948) and Sections 32-A and 32-B of the Plantations Labour Act,
1951 (69 of 1951).

(2) Save as provided in sub-section
(1), all other provisions of a Scheduled Act, including in particular, the inspection
of the registers by, and furnishing of their
copies to, the authorities under that Act, shall apply to the returns and registers
required to be furnished or maintained under this Act as they apply to the returns
and registers under that Scheduled Act.

(3) Where an employer in relation
to a small establishment or very small establishment to which a Scheduled Act
applies, furnishes returns or maintains the registers as provided in the proviso
to sub-section (1), nothing contained in that Scheduled Act shall render him
liable to any penalty for his failure to furnish any return or to maintain any
register under that Scheduled Act.

(a) the previous operation of any provision of any Scheduled Act
or the validity, invalidity, effect or consequence of anything done or suffered
under that provision, before the relevant period ;

(b) any right, privilege, obligation or liability already acquired,
accrued or incurred under any Scheduled Act, before the relevant period ;

(c) any penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred or inflicted
in respect of any offence committed under any Scheduled Act, before the relevant
period ;

(d)
any investigation, legal proceeding or remedy in respect of any such right,
privilege, obligation, liability, penalty, forfeiture or punishment aforesaid,
and any such investigation, legal proceeding or remedy in respect of any such
right, privilege, obligation, liability, penalty, forfeiture or punishment shall
be instituted, continued or disposed of, as the case may be, in accordance with
that Scheduled
Act.

Explanation.—For
the purpose of this section, the expression "relevant period" means
the period during which an establishment is or was a small establishment or
a very small establishment under this Act.

(a) in the case of the first conviction, with fine which may extend
to rupees five thousand ; and

(b) in the case of any second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment
for a period which shall not be less than one month but which may extend to
six months or with fine which shall not be less than rupees ten thousand but
may extend to rupees twenty-five thousand, or with both.

7. Power to
amend Form.—(1) The Central Government may, if it
is of opinion that it is expedient so to do, by notification in the Official
Gazette amend any Form and thereupon such Form shall, subject to the provisions
of sub-section (2), be deemed to have been amended accordingly.

(2) Any notification issued
under sub-section (1) shall be laid before each House of Parliament, if it is
sitting as soon as may be after the issue of the notification, and if it is
not sitting, within seven days of its re-assembly and the Central Government
shall seek the approval of Parliament to the notification by a resolution moved
within a period of fifteen days beginning with the day on which the notification
is so laid before the House of the People, and if Parliament makes any modification
in the notification or directs that the notification should cease to have effect,
the notification shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or
be of no effect, as the case may be, but without prejudice to the validity of
anything previously done thereunder.